Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)

I am sorry the Minister for Transport and the Marine, Deputy Dempsey, is not here to take this very important matter. It shows the way he treats it. However, I am delighted the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, is here on his behalf. Being a Tipperary woman, she will be very supportive of what I have to say.

Weekend media reports reveal the Minister for Transport and the Marine is about to appoint two new directors to the board of Aer Lingus with a mandate to block the transfer of Heathrow slots from Cork and Dublin Airports and is set to abandon Shannon Airport to the west. We all welcome the move to safeguard the slots at Cork and Dublin Airports but to abandon Shannon Airport and leave the entire region without connectivity to Heathrow is unbelievable and will not be accepted in the region.

The Minister for Transport and the Marine told us we were exaggerating. When he finally accepted there was a crisis, he said there was nothing he could do about it. The Minister has told us it is too late for Shannon, but it is not. Two weeks ago in the House, the Minister said the Government believed it would be inappropriate to intervene in the decision-making of a private company and that to do so ultimately would be damaging both to the company and its customers. I remind the Minister for Transport and the Marine that he also said shareholders do not have the power to overrule management decisions on business matters. He said this was based on legal advice. Will he publish this legal advice so we can examine it? It is extraordinary that the legal advice last week was that one cannot intervene but that, this week, the Minister will appoint two board members and, as quoted in the newspapers, he will not give management carte blanche in regard to what it could do with the slots. The Minister, however, will not intervene in the Shannon issue.

Last week during the debate on Aer Lingus there were rumours that a new airline was coming into Shannon and that a deal would be done in the near future, but the reality is very different. Anybody who knows the airline business will know that BMI had already committed two fleets flying long-haul to the Middle East and would not be in a position to change its aircraft rotations in respect of any incentive it was offered. The rumour was just a face-saving spin coming from the Government.

The Minister is to appoint two directors to Aer Lingus which he should have done on his first day in office. However, he failed to realise how important this was until my colleague, Deputy O'Dowd, pointed it out to him. Will the Minister appoint somebody from the mid-west to the board? The mid-west has been marginalised at Government and board levels. While various Government Deputies in the mid-west were happy to jump up and down in constituencies and talk about the issue, none stood by us in terms of their commitments when there was a crucial vote last week. It is important the mid-west is given a voice at board level in Aer Lingus. It would provide a direct input for the region at the forthcoming extraordinary general meeting to discuss fleet expansion.

Already a number of investments in the region have been cancelled. Ballykilty Manor in Quin has put its expansion project on hold and this comes on top of the decisions by Dromoland and Doonbeg.

The reality is that Aer Lingus is the only airline in respect of the Heathrow slots. There is no alternative. If the decision by Aer Lingus is not reversed, it will have huge consequences for Shannon and the entire western region. Day by day confidence is being diluted in our region and yet no action is being taken in defence of Shannon. There are commitments to future investment in Transport 21 and there was a commitment in the tourism and economic development plan, but nothing has happened. Not one cent has been spent on this promised tourism and economic development plan.

Having conceded that it can intervene in Aer Lingus, I call on the Government to use its 25% shareholding in the company to have the Aer Lingus Shannon-Heathrow service restored. Time is running out in terms of airline scheduling for 13 January 2008, but it is also running out for the Minister for Transport and the Marine and the Government on this issue. It is a critical issue in the region and it will not go away.

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